Jocko Fish Kill Spurs Council Irrigation Poison Ban
Dixon: Angered by an unnecessary fish-kill in a Jocko River canal, the Tribal Council has directed the Flatehad Irrigation Project to stop using chemical pesticied in and around canals. However, FIP Director George Moon says he will not suspend use of the poisons in the irrigation system.
The Council took the action July 27 following the poisoning of more than 700 fish in the lower J Canal west of Rav-dli. The poisoning occurred July 3 when an FIP crew dumped 110 gallons of Xylene....a potent weed and moss killer which is also highly toxic to fish and aquatic insects ...into the canal just down from its diversion from the Jocko west of the Ravalli bridge. The poison, in the words of Montana Fish and Game Biologist Bob Domrose, "completely destroyed" all life in the five mile long canal. After destroying the canal, the poison was allowed to flow freely into the Jocko river causing "probable" harm to it and "possible damage" to the Flathead river two miles downstream.
Moon, along with Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director James Canan, appeared before the Council to explain why
„ne poison was used without approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the BIA, the Department of Agriculture or the Tribe. Moon told the Council he had applied for BIA authority to use Xylene in February but had not received notification. He said he did not feel he was responsible to either the EPA or other federal regulatory bureaus.
Moon said he feels his first responsibility is to the water users. "We know Xylene kills fish but it is the cheapest method I have of removing moss from the system and the loss of the fish is only a secondary consequence," he said.
The Flathead Irrigation System, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, serves from 90 to 9 5 percent white water users.
Moon was asked how the Xylene contaminated water was allowed to flow into the Jocko river. He said the release of the poisoned water into the river was an accident resulting
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Perma Fire Destroys 700 Acres
Perma: A 700 acre fire was still raging up the reservation divide above Perma point Wednesday as Char-Koosta went to press.
Fire control Officer Roy Montgomery said the blaze jumped control lines Tuesday noon behind heavy gusts and whirlwinds and began burning out of control. The blaze, which started during a lightning storm Friday, had twice been controlled but been driven out of containment lines Sunday and Tuesday by high winds.
Montgomery said the rerma point fire was manned by a crew of 800 reservation fire fighters and crews from other areas. He said heavy equipment from logging operations in the area had also been called onto the fire and aircraft
was making borax fire retard-ent drops on the blaze. Several helicopters were also being used.
The Perma Point fire was one of four which broke out during Friday's lightning storm. Montgomery said three other fires along the reservation divide were contained at less than one acre. To date there have been 44 fires on the reservation this year.
All logging operations have been shut down on the reservation and logging equipment has been placed on fire standby. Other uses of the reservation forests are being restricted. Camping is confined to improved sites only and camp-fires allowed only in provided pits.
OOSTA
15£
THE BI-WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND'd ORLELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
Volume 111 Number \4> FULL MOON OF THE WILD ONION (August 15, 1973)
Hassle Over Direct Drug Service
Dixon (Aug.l): The Flathead reservation has found itself suddenly in the middle of a hot drug problem. . . but it isn't the usual kind.
The drugs, in this case, are pharmeceuticals and the problem revolves around who is going to dispense Indian Public Health Service (IHS) paid prescriptions and where the profits will go. Until now, IHS has contracted its pharmeceutical service to local drug stores but a new policy has established direct prescription service for the St. Ignatius-Ronan areas in the new Flathead Indian Health Center in St. Ignatius. The new service will go into effect the first of September under Pharmacy Officer Dale Johnson.
But the local druggists in Ronan and St. Ignatius and some Indians in the Charlo-Ronan area are opposed to the idea and therein lies the drug problem.
When the druggists were in-
formed about the new policy last month, they contacted Western District Montana Representative Richard Shoup and asked for his assistance in snuffing the new pharmeceutical policy. The druggist also began garnering signatures from IHS patients to petition the tribe to restore contact service.
The whole thing came to a boil August 1 when the druggists and a representative from Congressman Shoup met with the Tribal Council's Health Committee and IHS officials. On one side were druggists Cal Lindborg, Ronan and Ken Hurt, St. Ignatius along with Mrs. Maureen Donegan, representing Congressman Shoup. In the other corner was Reservation IHS Director Wayne Mc-Mullan, Pharmacy Officer Dale Johnson and IHS Area officials Bart Proper, Pharmacy Officer, and Dr. Stan Rodgers, Acting Director. Councilman
Pat Lefthand's Health Committee refereed.
Lindborg and Hurt complained that the new direct pharmacy was an arbitrary decision and would end up not only costing as much money and providing Indian patients; poorer prescription services but would also increase the cost of prescriptions to non-Indians and harm local business.
Committee Chairman Left-hand replied that the new policy was not an arbitrary decision by IHS but was carried out at the wishes of the Tribal Council. On May 19, the Council unanimously resolved to request IHS to install a direct pharmacy program in the new health center. The Council re-olution noted that a direct program for the two communities could save the Tribes $47,124 per year in prescriptions.... money that could be used for
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